Beekman St. Bistro

[docsconz]

My wife and I had dinner tonight at Beekman St. Bistro, the new restaurant at 62 Beekman St. in Saratoga Springs. Simply put, if it can consistently perform like it did tonight it is by far the best dining value in Saratoga!

The concept of the restaurant is to use as much local ingredients and prime sourced ingredients as possible with a Mediterranean style. The restaurant itself is very comfortable, although if one is needing a lot of space to spread out on the table, one may be better off elsewhere. The tables aree almost, but not quite communal. In other words don't discuss any major secrets. But if one wants excellent bistro food at a very reasonable price in a comfortable environment, one need go no further.

It was difficult to choose from the attractive menu. The difficulty was not so much with the total variety of choices, it was due to the fact that all the choices appeared appetizing. My wife started with a gazpacho. This was not exactly the traditional Spanish gazpacho that I am familiar with. Instead it was more of a puree, albeit extremely tasty. I starte with grilled shrimp with a romesco sauce and grilled scallions. This was a superb balance of flavors. The sauce adde a nice spice to the shrimp without overwhelmin them.

Next up, my wife had a couscous salad with capers and mixed seafood - delicious with just the right amount of capers to be piquant but still subtle. I had a caprese salad with mozzarella di buffala and local heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil and EVOO. This was superb. The buffala is from Italy and surprisingly good. The dish had great balance and really hit the spot.

My wife had a roaste eggplant stuffed with lentils and goat cheese while I had half a roasted Muscovy duck with roasted carrots with caraway seeds. I'm not a big eggplant fan, but this was superb. The lentils and goat cheese provided the dominant flavors. My duck was perfectly seasoned and full of real duck essence. That is to say the duck flavor shone through and wasn't masked by an overly sweet, smarmy sauce. The carrots were awesome as well.

The place does not yet have a license to sell wine or liquor. I knew this ahead of time so I brought a couple of bottles of wine with us. The nice thing though is that I didn't need to open either, as they poured complimentarey glasses of an Italian white (the predominant grape was greco) and a crianza tempranillo (vintage 1999). Unfortunately, I do not recall the names, but both were fine food wines and eminently drinkable. I saved my own wines for future consumption.

For dessert we shared a cheese and fruit plate. The fruit was local canteloupe and great dried figs. The cheeses were a nicely matured Great Hill Bleu and a luscious St. Andre. We also had a blueberry granita with whipped cream and mint.

The bill before after tax but before tip came out to $88.

The telephone number is (518) 581-1816. The chef is Dan Spitz. Tim Meaney is the owner. I wish them the best of luck!

[markabauman]

John-

Thanks for the great review. This might be a great place to dine during track season, if they haven't been discovered or over-exposed yet. Many of us locals just avoid dining out at all this time of year. Might be good for visitors who might not appreciate the often rushed service, higher prices and dimished quality of food that can so often occur during the season.

[docsconz]

As of last night the place was primarily filled with locals there by word-of-mouth. The restaurant has not advertized. I expect word of mouth to spread quickly to the track set. This is but one avenue.

[dan.]

I got to try this restaurant this past weekend, and it was very nice despite a couple of mistakes, but at the prices they are charging I feel it's almost not right to complain. The menu seems to change regularly as some of my dining companions were making return trips and finding different entrées printed on the menu. The appetizers and salads were wonderful and were the real showpieces for the local produce the restaurant aims to highlight. The oyster mushroom bruschetta was juicy and delicious and thought I didn’t have one myself everyone seemed to love the salad combinations. My main course, rabbit three ways, started with an outstanding rabbit liver spread on toast. It was light, smooth and flavorful and preferable to chicken livers done in a similar style. A velvety chopped liver with a sweeter, milder flavor. The rabbit sausage was almost as impressive. Not at all dry, which was a concern given the leanness of the meat and correctly spiced. The rabbit confit however was dry and was lacking in the flavor department. The dish was served on a bed of fairly bland lentils, which did little to spice up the leg, in fact it may have contributed to the lack of moisture on the plate. Again though, the liver and sausage were outstanding. Other dishes I sampled included the roast duck, which was very nice and seemed like a very generous portion and a goat cheese, eggplant dish that used half an eggplant as the container for an eggplant, goat cheese puree studded with the beans. The dish was delicious but so, so rich and huge considering it was the size of half a large eggplant. Also, there was nothing to cut the richness here, a couple of greens lined the plate, but some contrasting elements would have been helpful. All in all though, a pretty good meal at a pretty great price. Appetizers, entrées and two bottles of wine came to 45$ a person including tax and tip for six people.

[docsconz]

dan., thanks for the report. This certainly isn't the world's greatest restaurant, but it doesn't pretend to be. Instead, as you described, it is very good bistro food at a very reasonable price. Dollar for dollar, I don't believe there is another restaurant in the area that can touch it. Perfect? No. Damn good? Yes. Great value? Darn tootin'!

[rich]

Six friends who live in Saratoga during the racing season ate at Beekman Street Bistro Sunday night and reported the food was fine but there appears to be a major area of concern - the wine list.

They had to order four bottles before they found one the restaurant still had in stock and only had one bottle. Then the restaurant offered them a wine by the glass - which they enjoyed, only to be told there was no more after one pouring (for three people). Then it happened again with a second by the glass wine.

In most cases when a restaurant is out of that many wines it indicates a "cash-flow" situation. I hope it doesn't affect the food.

I don't understand why restaurants don't remove wines from the list when they're out. Or at the very least mention which wines are unavailable when the list is presented. Not saying anything is annoying, embarrassing (for the restaurant) and unprofessional.

But I really don't get the point of making a wine recommendation (to a table of six) when only three glasses are left.

[sammy]

Yikes, and racing season is just beginning.

Would make a bit more sense if they ran out on Saturday night of Travers Weekend.

[sammy]

Rich, where are you planning to go this season?

It is Springwater Bistro again for me, at least for one meal.

P.S. Don't enter any of horses against The Green Monkey!!

[rich]

Rich, where are you planning to go this season?

It is Springwater Bistro again for me, at least for one meal.

P.S. Don't enter any of horses against The Green Monkey!!

←

Yes, I will be going and will visit Beekman Steet (if they have any wine left), the Wine Bar and Chez Sophie.

I have a three year old named Kal El (Superman's real name) who finished second in a Maiden Special at Belmont earlier in the month - Rick Violette trains. He should be running with the next 10 days in Saratoga will more than likely be the favorite.

My prediction about The Green Monkey - he will never win a Grade I stakes race and will not break his maiden at the Spa. My backstretch sources tell me he has some sore tendons and has never fully recovered from his 8.4 work before the sales.

[coughy]

We are going to the races next week. Went to Chez Sophie last year and loved it. Our friends would like to try something different. I had made a reservation at Gotchya's but the review on this board was not very good. Help!!!

[sammy]

Springwater Bistro!!!!

[docsconz]

I had lunch at BSB this past Sunday as part of a group with Slow Food NYC that was up for the weekend. The food was superb, especially 3 Corner Field Farm lamb meatballs. I never would have ordered them from the menu, but I couldn't get enough. I will post more on this and the rest of the weekend in a separate thread.

As for the wines, they have a small but eclectic list that goes well with their cuisine. Theere is one wine on the list that they are out of - the aglianico. It was supposed to have been delivered last week, but as of Sunday hasn't been. I had a lovely rose with my meal.

What I love about BSB is that they don't try to be more than they are. They do a great job of taking quality local ingredients (moreso than any other restaurant in the area) and preparing them simply and very, very well. The atmosphere is nice and comfortable without being stuffy.

Springwater Bistro is a fine restaurant, but discussion of that restaurant belongs elsewhere unless specifically compared to Beekman St. Bistro.

[docsconz]

Had dinner twice over this past week at BSB and both times the food was superb. The oyster mushroom bruschetta is what the concept of bruschetta was invented for. It is outstanding. The Flying Pigs Farm pork chop was the best I have had in some time. It came with succulent Sheldon Farms corn. Rositto with summer squash, mint and parmiggiano had great balance and flavors, while the flank steak was also quite tasty. The wine list, though not filling multiple pages is excellent with unusual, food friendly, reasonably priced wines.

The style of this restaurant reminds me of Chez Panisse Cafe. It takes largely local produce (more than any other restaurant in the area at present) and cooks them simply, but very, very well, all the while letting the top-notch ingredients shine.

The space is quite comfortable as well. It is filled with rotating art shows. Most of the art is, I believe, available for sale. I really like a lot of the current work.

If the restaurant has a flaw, it is that the staff is small. When we were there last, it seemed that most of the tables filled around the same time, so service was a little slow. Nevertheless, everything came out in good order.